Chen Seeks To Reassure China After Election Win

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Dec. 3 -- In his first appearance since his party
won Taiwan's legislative elections, President Chen Shui-bian sought to
reassure China today that he remains committed to improved relations
and urged Beijing to stop ignoring his government.

Chen told a group of visiting scholars that he plans no major
changes in his policies toward China and he repeated an offer to open
direct talks with Chinese leaders. His remarks, made two days after
his Democratic Progressive Party captured the most seats in parliament
for the first time, seemed intended to soothe China's Communist
government, which considers Taiwan part of its territory and has
threatened to seize it by force if necessary.

Chinese officials have yet to comment on the election results, but
the strong showing by Chen's party, which favors independence for
Taiwan, seemed likely to disturb them.

"My sincere wish to improve cross-straits ties remains
unchanged, as does my eagerness to see the normalization of relations
and the leaders of both sides shake hands," Chen said. "The
mainland authorities despised me and the new government before the
elections. But after these elections, I hope they will be able to
accept the choice of the Taiwanese people and seize this window of
opportunity."

In an interview, Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of Taiwan's ministry-level
Mainland Affairs Council, said Chen would keep his promise not to
provoke Beijing by formally declaring independence. But she also said
he would continue to reject Chinese demands that Taiwan agree that it
is part of one China, whose sole legitimate government is in Beijing.

The Chinese government has refused to meet with Chen unless he
accepts the "one China" principle. It has tried to weaken
Chen by wooing his political opponents and Taiwanese businesses. Some
officials in Beijing have said the government is willing to wait for
him to be replaced by a leader who supports reunification. But the
Democratic Progressive Party's victory may force Chinese leaders to
reconsider that strategy because the election results suggest that
Chen may stay in power longer and that support in Taiwan for
reunification may be falling.

Despite Taiwan's deepest recession on record, Chen's party won 87 of
the 225 seats in the legislature, sweeping aside the Nationalist
Party, which endorses eventual reunification and ruled Taiwan for five
decades before it lost the presidency to Chen last year in the
island's first democratic transition of power.

Also likely to upset China is the political comeback of Chen's
predecessor, Lee Teng-hui, whom Beijing detests because of his efforts
to break Taiwan out of diplomatic isolation in the 1990s. Lee came out
of retirement this year and formed a new political party that won 13
seats in the legislature.